


Stories of futures past

by tallpaleandanxious



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alien Culture, Character Study, Gen, I hope, Introspection, One Shot, basically just saru rambling to himself, but its an entertaining ramble, i just have a lot of feelings after season 3 and i need to put them somewhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tallpaleandanxious/pseuds/tallpaleandanxious
Summary: "Kelpians had never written stories. At least they hadn’t when Saru had been small. There were relics of a writing system, if you knew where to look. Hidden in the patterns they scribed on the walls of their modest houses, and wove into the fabric of their clothes. But it was a dead language. Killed by the propaganda of those who hunted them, lest they find hidden in the words the true nature of their enslavement."-or a fic about space travel, time travel, and the tales of what can happen inbetween.
Relationships: possible parent & child dynamic if you squint
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Stories of futures past

Kelpians had never written stories. At least they hadn’t when Saru had been small. There were relics of a writing system, if you knew where to look. Hidden in the patterns they scribed on the walls of their modest houses, and wove into the fabric of their clothes. But it was a dead language. Killed by the propaganda of those who hunted them, lest they find hidden in the words the true nature of their enslavement. 

Instead theirs was an oral tradition. As the spoken word was one of the few things that couldn't be taken from them. Their myths and legends sung in ringing peals around campfires late at night. Each melody handed down from one generation to the next. Like batons passed through time. He still had memories, in the hazy recollection of his youth, of lying in his mothers arms as she sang some lullaby to him. Her voice soft and gentle in the darkness. Those were good memories. Some of the few from that time when he had felt safe. But it was tinged with sadness too. She was long gone now, his mother. His sister too. And countless other kelpians he could have met if only he had stayed, in that time and place. 

If only that ship hadn’t come. 

But it had. And it brought with it something that no kelpian had ever been offered.

All he had to do was take the chance. 

Kelpian stories were, in general, about running away from things.  They taught the young about the shifting patterns of danger. About the necessity of trusting in your instincts. Trusting in fear, avoiding the unknown.  They were full of frightening creatures that came for you in the dead of night. And the glinting of cruel eyes from the depths of shadows. They were not, as a rule, tales that celebrated bravery.  Saru wasn’t even sure they had a word for it. 

Humans on the other hand, definitely did. 

They told stories too. But as they had lived in relative prosperity for centuries, their written literature had become plentiful and rich.  He had absorbed it all, in those first few months at the starbase. Like a desert plant drinks the summer rain. The others with him had been surprised he could consume it all at such a rate. But kelpian senses are more intense than those of humans. Their brains adept at processing information at breakneck speeds. And he wanted, more than anything through those long and lonely hours, to adapt. To understand.  But what he found within those archives, was something unexpected.  There were plenty of cautionary tales like the ones he had grown up with.  But along with them were stories of humans that deliberately chased the unknown.  And dared to confront it, despite the clear risk to themselves, not with fear, but with curiosity, acceptance.  Even love. 

To a kelpian, such behaviour looked something like madness. 

But it was, as Saru came to learn, an important part of human culture. And for good reason. Because bravery hadn't come easily to them. Humans hadn’t been so different from kelpians, In their early years. Fear had stunted them. Though from what Saru could tell, it was mostly one another they were frightened of, as their natural predators had died out long ago. 

There was a lot of violence then, and desperate struggling for power in the name of self preservation. But they had grown past it Somehow. Leaving behind only the will to explore. To deliberately embrace that which frightened them with their minds open and willing to understand. It was this that had allowed them to become more than they were. Had allowed them to build starships, and with them, define their new purpose of peaceful exploration. But they were mindful, always of where they had come from. Of how easy it would be to let fear tighten its grip on them again. So they wrote stories to remind them. Encoded it's message in the very fairy tales they sung to their children, so they would never forget.

And as Saru had read them, he thought back to that night. To those strange lights on the horizon. And that human face. The first he had ever seen, smiling from the threshold of an alien ship. He could still remember the fear of it. His Instincts, begging him to run. But also...hidden deep within, a sense of anticipation.

And he understood.

It had been clear to him then. The path he had to take. Though the glands in the back of his head often told him otherwise.  But he never regretted it. Not for a moment. 

Not when the warning lights blared and the ship shook under fire. 

Not when he found himself staring down the end of a blaster rifle.

Not when he lay on his scrap of kelpian moss, waiting to die.

Because he had been determined, through it all, to give his people new stories to tell to their children. Ones that encouraged them to embrace that which frightened them, with their minds open, ready to understand.  And when he had arrived, in this glistening new future...and his crew had rushed to contact home, he instead had run to the archives. Listed there, under the heading for his species were more books than he could read in a lifetime. All written by kelpian authors. He had sat up that night to read them, one by one. Like he had on those nights at the starbase. And he had wept.

There were still voices, singing the old tales, like the ones of his youth. But it was his turn to sing them now, for Sukal.  The holodeck had done its best to raise him. In all those years he spent, alone and afraid on that wreck of a ship. But he had found the courage to leave behind that turbulent beginning. And it was Saru’s purpose now, to help him find his way to a better future.

After all, there had been a time when kelpians had never written stories. But they had soon learned. And with them, they had reached the stars.


End file.
